Post-WWI Military Disarmament and Interwar Fascism: Evidence from Sweden

Heléne Berg (), Matz Dahlberg () and Kåre Vernby ()
Additional contact information
Heléne Berg: Department of Economics, Stockholm University
Matz Dahlberg: IBF and Department of Economics, Uppsala University, Postal: P.O. Box 513, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Kåre Vernby: Department of Political Science, Stockholm University; Department of Government, Uppsala University

No 2016:16, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The emergence of anti-democratic movements is a central puzzle to social science. We study a novel and rich dataset covering Swedish municipalities during the interwar years and nd a strong link between the presence of a military garrison and the emergence of fascist parties. We interpret these results as suggesting that fascist mobilization in Sweden was driven by discontent with the process of disarmament brought about by democratization. By contrast, economic hard times, as captured by local poverty and the size of the tax base, seem to have little connection with such parties. We relate these results to in influential theories of democratization.

Keywords: Democracy; Interwar fascism; Disarmament (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: N44 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2016-12-27
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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